Introduction to Language and Linguistics

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Introduction to Language and Linguistics

• Xiaofei Lu
• APLNG 083S
• September 2, 2008

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Agenda

• Defining language
• Theoretical linguistics
• Applied linguistics

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Defining language

• Features exhibited by
• All communication systems
• Some communication systems
• Only human language

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Features all comm. systems

• A mode of communication
• Visual, vocal-auditory, chemical
• Semanticity
• Signals have meaning
• Primary function
• System serves some useful purpose

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Features some comm. systems

• Interactivity
• Cultural transmission
• Arbitrariness
• Discreteness

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Features human language only

• Productivity
• Displacement

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Questions

• Do traffic lights constitute a comm. System?
• What features does the barking system have?
• Is there a longest sentence in English? Why?
• What feature of language leads to AM Talk?

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Theoretical linguistics

• The scientific study of language
• Sounds and sound systems
• Structure and meaning
• Language use
• Acquisition and processing
• Computational modeling

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Phonetics

• The study of physical sounds of human speech
• Articulatory phonetics sound production
• Voicing, place manner of articulation /p/ vs.
  /b/
• Acoustic phonetics sound wave properties
• Auditory phonetics speech perception
• A Phonetics joke

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Phonology

• The study of sound system of a language
• Distribution of sounds in a language
• Contrastive distribution beef/reef
• Complementary distribution today/writer
• Interactions between those sounds, e.g.,
• Palatalization did you

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Morphology

• Studies the structure of words
• Morphemes
• Root/Affix buses
• Derivational/Inflectional affix
  unhappy/happiness
• Free/Bound morpheme buses
• Morphological processes
• Processes through which new words are created

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Syntax

• Studies the structure of sentences
• Constituents meaning groups
• Linear order and hierarchical structure
• Lexical and phrasal Categories
• Phrasal structure rules
• VP -gt V NP

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Semantics

• They study of meaning in language
• Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
• What does table mean?

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Pragmatics

• The study of language use
• How people use language in context
• Whey they use language in particular ways
• Literal meaning vs. intended meaning
• Rules of conversations
• Logical relations between utterances

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Sociolinguistics

• Relations between language and social factors
• Language variation
• Language and gender
• Language and socioeconomic status
• Language and ethnicity
• Language change

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Psycholinguistics

• Acquisition, storage, production and
  comprehension of language
• Child language acquisition
• Human language processing

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Computational modeling

• Computational linguistics
• Natural language processing

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Applied linguistics

• Foreign/second language teaching
• Second language acquisition
• Discourse analysis
• Corpus linguistics
• Language and technology
• Language in professional context

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